Writing Fiction by Installment

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The Creature Wakes – A Short Story

Deep under the house, with its dark halls and rooms filled with the nostalgic talismans left by past occupants, the monster was woken. A creature whose shadow, hate and despair had years ago seeped down into the foundation and clung to the walls. With foul, venomous breath it infected the air as it took shape, grotesque and unseen. It rose, called by a desire to devour the love it felt had invaded its domain. Up the stairs it crept to the master bedroom and out to the balcony overlooking the long yard with its crumbling wall. There it spied the two girls playing near the fountain with their father sitting and writing at a table on the patio, and its heart was filled with an awful lust. But, as it lifted its gaze to the bordering woods, it saw a fox sitting in the shade of the trees. The fox’s eyes were fixed upon the creature with a curious smile twisting along its mouth. And the creature knew then the fox, yet it was too late to prepare a defense. Three piercing barks shot forth from the animal, and the creature felt its body dissipate in their wake. Its form shattered. However its spirit, potent and still dangerous, could not be undone, and it settled over and filled the house, hungering in the dark for death and disease. The fox, with a satisfied air about it, looked over to the girls, catching the older one’s gaze, and they became transfixed on each other

“Dad it’s a fox. Look!” the younger one yelled.

But before the dad could see the fox spun about and ran quickly off deep into the woods.